Veterans say 'The Hurt Locker' gets a lot right and wrong

I'm staying out of this for two reasons. First is that I still have not seen the movie but the biggest reason is that I was not there, so I'll take the word of veterans who were there any day.

Veterans say 'The Hurt Locker' gets a lot right and wrong

By Gregg Zoroya, USA TODAY
Explosives specialists who disarm the roadside bombs of Iraq and Afghanistan say the mental zone they enter to defeat these devices is like a narcotic. They describe a state of heightened senses that comes only from death being just a detonating click away.
So it rings true, they say, when the words "war is a drug" flash on screen in the Academy Award-nominated Iraq war movie, The Hurt Locker.

"When you put on the bomb suit, your life's really simple — don't die," says Army Sgt. 1st Class Andrew Graham, 33, an explosive ordnance disposal, or EOD, specialist who has done three tours of combat in Iraq and disarmed more bombs than he can remember.

"Your sense of awareness of what's going on around you, and how clearly you focus on something is pretty extraordinary," Graham says. "That's what's addictive."

This war-is-drug premise animates the film's lead character, an EOD team leader who finds meaning only in the mission he loves: defeating bombs that can kill him in an instant. It is part of what movie reviewers have said makes The Hurt Locker a tour de force as a contemporary vision of combat.
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Veterans say The Hurt Locker gets a lot right and wrong